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The first time I went to Chingle Hall.

The first time I went to Chingle Hall was back in the 90's, I was not a paranormal investigator at that time, and I was there on a fund raising event. There I was me and seven complete strangers, plus Jason Karl (Most Haunted, series one) he worked at Chingle Hall as a guide at the time. Six of the other seven knew each other, only me and one bloke (Tony) had gone there alone, and as luck would have it we got on very well, it turned out that we both had the same sick sense of humour. Tony was about the same age as me and the other six were university students (studying to be researchers).

It was a strange night all round, the ghosts picked on me all night too everyone's amusement.

The night started off well, Jason took us on a tour around Chingle Hall, telling us about the different ghosts that have been seen over the years, and the ghosts he has seen, and how scared he was sometimes. We got to pink room, I was at the back and last one to go in to the room, I walked in and put my cigarettes on the mantelpiece and I sat in the chair (it was a hot summer and I wore shorts). As I sat there listening to Jason telling us the history of this room, I felt something brush/stroke my leg, so I rubbed my leg in case there was something on me, at the same time Jason looked straight at me and said "Your sat in Elena chair, if Elena likes you she will stroke you" he paused for a moment as I was still rubbing my leg, he then said "She's been stoking you hasn't she" with a big cheesy smile on his face, I just nodded with embarrassment. As we left the pink room I went to pick up my cigarettes but they had vanished, I asked who had taken my cigarettes but they all said they hadn't touched them. Jason then said that Elena sometimes take things but she does give them back later, I replied "She can take anything she likes, but not my cigs" and everyone laughed. After we had been around the blue room we went back down stairs to the great hall, as I opened the door I saw my cigarettes on the table (I was the first person through the door) how the hell did they get there, we were the only people in the house and we were all together?

Later when Jason had gone to bed, we sat at the table in the great hall having a cuppa and the chandler above my head started swinging, at this point I hadn't seen it; I only saw the look on everyone's face as they looked above my head. When I saw it, I changed seats and the chandler stopped but then the chandler that was above the second chair started to swing, so I went and stood by the window (no chandlers by the front window).

At about 1am we all went out and walked around the grounds, most of us heard the faint sound of children laughing, were they ghosts? We don't know, the children's laughter could have come from the house opposite to Chingle Hall. Tony went back inside first, I had a feeling he was up to something but I didn't know what, I soon found out. Tony stood behind the big heavy front door, he'd brought a scary old man mask with, he was stood behind the door ready to jump out and frighten everyone, it worked and we all had a good laugh about it once the screaming stopped. By 2am the students were all tucked up in their sleeping bags and unconscious. Tony and I were sat chatting when we heard plates, cups and cutlery rattling in the kitchen so we went to investigate, the kitchen was quiet when we got there, so we had a cuppa. It was then that we decided to scare the crap out of the students. We went outside and shone our torches through the windows of the great hall and scratched at the windows, we could see them sliding further down in their sleeping bags and shaking. God it was funny.

The morning came and the students finally got up, we sat having breakfast and talking about our night in Chingle Hall. The students told us about all that had happened to them once they got in their sleeping bags, I felt sorry for them at this point, we had scared the crap well and truly out of them. A good night all round.

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